By Gary Albers
Mark Pontes, commonly known as Magabe, has stood down as chairman of Amanzimtoti Canoe Club after an incredible eight years at the helm.
Mark has been involved with the canoe club even before he was a canoeist. Firstly as a second for his brother-in-law Solly Segal when he took part in the Dusi Canoe Marathon. Then when his son, Tyron got involved with guppie paddling and with a gentle twist of the wrist from Solly (as we all know how gentle he can be), he decided to do just one Dusi.
Ten Dusi Canoe Marathons, Vaal marathons, 10 Fish Canoe marathons and many surfski races later, he now has decided to call time on holding the fort at Toti.
It was not long after his first Dusi that he was elected as chairman in 2007 and took charge of the club. Mark was very passionate about the canoe club and was forever striving to improve where ever possible.
He was instrumental in work parties and improvement of the club and he often used his own resources to upgrade and improve our club.
Mark or Magabe, as he was better known between club members and a lot of non-club members, had this never-say-never attitude, even if it was an impossibility and he would do his utmost to see a task through.
He was forever chasing council every time the water in the river was not up to a certain standard. Those same people he chased around for good reasons related to the improvement of our river are probably heaving a sigh of relief.
Mark was so passionate about the river. One day we all noticed the river cleaning up so amazingly. As we stood there, you could see the water getting clearer by the minute. Mark had his explanations of how the water is filtered through the sand and it will clear in winter months. Unbeknown to all of us, the water purification plant at the top of Seadoone Road had 10,000 litre spill and this product had made its way to our river and as a result, the sand sediment was falling to the riverbed and the fish were at a massive risk.
The next morning when Mark saw the fish all battling to breath, he was catching them and throwing whichever fish he could find alive into the sea.
This particular day was the first and only time any of us had seen Mark in tears. He was and is very passionate about Toti river and nature as a whole and could not handle that these fish were dying as a result of human error.
We cannot only single out Mark as chairman for all these years. He had a secretary, organiser, planner, master craftsman, chef and a level-headed person right next to him. This was his wife, Audrey. We can all be very happy that Audrey was there. She was the rudder for this willing craft.
Audrey was club secretary for many years and she has also stepped down, but both are willing to show the ropes to the new chairman, Ross Fountain and the new committee of Gary Albers (club captain), Ashley Espitalier (treasurer), Rory Taylor (entertainment), Neville Hazell (safety officer, Gareth Hazell (junior representative), Brent Chiazzari (coaching) and Sipho Luthuli (development).
Magabe will stay on the committee and he will still be involved with the club. So sorry for you Audrey, you are stuck there too.
All the members of the club would like to say a very big thank you to Mark and Audrey for all their efforts and time spent at Toti Canoe Club since 2007.
